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Summary: A hero of Hemingway
Review: I read this book in Chinese,and I plan to read it in English again.(Maybe something that I am writting is not good translation from Chinese to English)I think the best way to understand a novel is to read it in its original language.Hemingway is one of my favorite authors.I like his style."Less is more."He uses the words that are not hard for me to understand,and they express his thoughts as well as the big words.In The Old Man and the Sea,Hemingway tells us a story about an old fisherman's experience on the sea.The part I like best is after the old man's way home after he finally catches the big fish,but he doesn't have enough strength to protect his victory from the sharks.He is all tried thirsty and hungry.Unfortunately,the sharks eat his fish bit by bit.So when he gets home,the fresh of the fish is gone,only the bone left there.Hemingway uses symbols a lot.For example,the old man's dreams of lions play on the beach represent the old man's youth and power.The old man is a hero that Hemingway creates successfully.
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Summary: This is a great book
Review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is a great short novel. Hemingway's vividly describes every aspect of the book from the setting to the thoughts of the Old Man. The story begins with the man ending a day of fishing in the gulf off of Cuba. This day was just like the last 84 days for the man, he had not caught a single fish. The man went out the next day with the same intentions as the as the day before and the day before that. He hoped to catch a large marlin that he might find in the deep waters of the gulf. He didn't know that he was to embark on the most significant fishing trip of his life. The main character Santiago is the old man that battles nature. The boy that assists the old man is the only important in the beginning and end of the book and not the climax. The book is short and goes into great detail about the old man's struggle against nature.
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Summary: Old man starts to get old after a while
Review: Old Man and the Sea is a very intresting book. Actually it is intresting in the first fifty pages. After that the excitment of him catching a fish, turns into something entirely different. For almost the rest of the entire book, the old man is being dragged along behind the never tiring fish. Frankly, it starts to get boring. Even with the occasional exitement, such as the giant fish jumping from the water, this fator of it seeming to drag on, brings it score down to only a 3.
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Summary: What Is Defeat for a Person?
Review: The Old Man and the Sea is Ernest Hemingway at his simplest, and most powerful, as a story teller. The sentences are short. The meaning is clear. The cadence of the prose advances your sense of what is happening.An old man goes out fishing alone from Cuba and hooks the fish of a lifetime. This fish could make a lifetime of disappointments and setbacks all worth while. After an incredible and exhausting fight, the fish is his. Now all he has to do is get it back to shore. Then the struggle really begins! The Old Man and the Sea lets us see our own lives more clearly, by experiencing the challenge to and empathizing with the fisherman in this classic tale of man versus nature and man versus himself that explores the true nature of human nobility. What does life mean? What is striving for? From what do we gain our dignity? Anyone who thinks that he who dies with the most toys wins will can learn a great deal from this story. Even if the story was not so compelling and universal in its appeal and themes, the book is worth the trip just for the writing. Simple words combine into simple sentences that build into metaphors that pile on top of metaphors in order to make for a magnificent vista and experience for you. Seldom has so much complexity been portrayed with such simplicity. What's even more astonishing is how short this novella is. Amazing! Just to let you know how much I love this book, I often use the techniques and concepts in The Old Man and the Sea in my own writing. Miscommunication is what people have the most trouble with in cooperating with each other. Any time you run into that stall, think about how Hemingway would have solved the problem. Tell a story like this one that makes the point you want to share. Then tell the story again and again. Thirty times or more, and everyone will begin to get it. When your listeners start telling the story thirty times to others, you have made an important first step. Read this book, reread this book, learn from it each time, and enjoy ... enjoy ... enjoy!
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Summary: Man Can Be Destroyed But Not Defeated and Vice Versa
Review: Central to this timeless novella is the common Hemingwayesque theme of what one loves must eventually be destroyed. Santiago loves this fish, respects its beauty, its size, its power, but still must demonstrate his own power, mainly for the sake of his pride. When he catches the fish, ties it to the skiff, and hauls it back to shore, frenzied sharks begin to feed on the now defenseless carcass. Santiago acts in the great marlin's defense, protecting its beauty, its dignity, as well as his own triumph over the mammoth beast. He needs to be the sole destroyer of this fish. Yet the marlin is still decimated by the relentless sharks, and Santiago feels he must blame himself for the fish's demise. Santiago's bitter struggle to reel in the mammoth prize is told simply and eloquently in a style that forever bears the Hemingway stamp.
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Summary: Wisdom, courage and literary rigour
Review: This book is the most likely of Hemingway's works to be loved in the future. Why? Because it is a classic. Why is it a classic? Because of two reasons, pertaining to content and style. In the content, the message is universal and eternal. In the style, the writing is self-contained but evocative and brilliant. Excess is entirely absent from Hemingway's craftmanship here. Santiago is an old fisherman from Cuba, a lover of baseball and contact with the sea. His life has been rather sad, lonely and lacking in material well-being. But, and this is what makes the book unforgettable, he is a MAN. Not just a brawling macho, like Hemingway himself, but a MAN in the best sense of the word. Although nobody will be witness of his prowess, he accomplishes it nonetheless. He is not abjectly trying to become a celebrity, like many people nowadays. Fishing the marlin, and carrying it home against Fate incarnated in a school of sharks, is not a matter of spotlights, but of dignity, of true love for oneself instead of plain vanity. And so, dignity is the name of the game. He is not like Hemigway, who got utterly stressed at having to go on with his fake image and so gave up and killed himself. Santiago would never kill himself: he fights on. Dignity is deep inside of him, in his consciousness of what he is worth, even if he remains a lonely old man scratching survival day after day. This is then a great book because it pairs the relevance of the story with the excellence of the writing. One last note: Hemingway is not very much liked these days, and for good reasons. But at least he could write this. Not many of us have done so and I guess it proves he was an extermely complex man, and not just a macho type.
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Summary: Hemingway achieves in 127 pages what most can't in 1000
Review: Before reading this book I was not a reader who looked for deeper meanings of books, but rather tried to take them at face value. This book changed everything! Ernest Hemingway's simple sentences managed to enchant a teenager who rarely cares to read. The enormity of what Hemingway does has been replicated by few in history. THe struggle of the old man against himself makes each of us examine more closley our own existence and helps us face the challenges that each of us are faced with. Hemingway is classic, and I would suggest that one would take the time to read this great work of American art.
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Summary: The Old Man and the Sea
Review: The Old Man and the Sea by: Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is the classic struggle of man against nature, where a single man has to fight against a great marlin, the sea, and the hot sun. Santiago, the main character, is an old fisherman who lives in Cuba. He has been without a catch for eighty-four days, but as William J. Handy once said, "To be defeated in the business of fishing is not to be a defeated man." The old man is depicted as a pathetic figure in his external appearances, but Hemingway describes his spirit through his eyes. "Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated."(p.2) Hemingway obviously believes the old saying: The eyes are the windows to the soul. His characterization in this book is far better than any other novel I have ever read. I like it so much because Hemingway uses extensive descriptions that let you picture the old man and get to know him on a personal level. He lets you into the old man's mind and you get to study his thoughts. This is only one of the many qualities that make The Old Man and the Sea such an astounding novel. Hemingway perfectly ties his theme into this story through the basic plot and the mood. This story is not only about man versus nature but it is also about the love and respect man should have for nature. In this book Santiago states, "Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends."(p.28) This is a reoccurring theme in this phenomenal novel that Hemingway believes should be taken to the heart. The plot of this novel is perfectly executed and makes your mind wanting to know what will unravel next. In the beginning the old man sets sail with his skiff on the eighty-fifth day of catching nothing, but this time he knows this will be the day he would catch a great fish. On his way out to sea, Santiago thinks of his days of youth and his essence of being back then; and he realizes that his essence of being hasn't changed but only his outward appearance. While he continues to ponder his life, he hooks the enormous fish. Immediately the focus switches and the battle begins. Now it is a contest of endurance, will, and spirit. The old man "tried not to think but only to endure."(p.23) Jackson J. Benson said that Ernest Hemingway has "perhaps the best ear that has ever been brought to the creation of English prose." In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway uses a wonderfully descriptive style that causes the reader to hang on to every word and always wanting to read more. This is very unique that he can write with such details and still keep it from getting boring or dull. One thing that makes Ernest Hemingway's writing so admired is the fact that even with all the details and imagery he puts into his writing he is still able to hold the reader's focus. Although his sentences are full of detail in this book, Hemingway still keeps them clear and simple. The simplicity of these sentences are like human thoughts in the sense that they are short but meaningful. One excerpt from The Old Man and the Sea clearly illustrates this: "They are good," he said. "They play and make jokes and love one another. They are our brothers like the flying fish."(25) This book is simple yet thought provoking, and for these reasons it can be enjoyed by people of all ages. I loved it and I think you will feel the same way about this Nobel Prize winning novel. The Old Man and the Sea is a marvelous piece of writing by Ernest Hemingway that will remain an American Classic forever.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Decent Read
Review: This book is about a man who lived all of his life on the sea as a fisherman. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the gulf stream.He had gone 84 days with out catching a fish. He went out to sea one day and cought the bigest fish which was 18 feet from nose to tail He stayed 2 days and two nights in the sea fighting the bigfish no food he would catch fish and eat them raw no salt.
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Summary: Quick and Easy
Review: Hemingway's simplest story. Man vesus nature versus himself. I read this one on my subway ride to work. It's a great book for casual reading.
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